Law Commons^™

Making Sure We Are True To Our Founders: The Association Of The Bar Of The City Of New York, 1970-95, Jeffrey Morris

Jeffrey B. Morris

No abstract provided.

Cat, Cause, And Kant, Richard Peltz-Steele

Richard J. Peltz-Steele

These are precarious times in which to launch a new law school and a new law review. Yet here we are. The University of Massachusetts is now in its first year of operation with provisional ABA accreditation. This text is a foreword to the first general-interest issue of the University of Massachusetts Law Review. Now marks an appropriate time to take stock of what these institutions mean to accomplish in our unsettled legal world.

A Demanding Boss, Rodger Citron

Rodger Citron

No abstract provided.

In Defense Of The Business Of Law, Judith Mcmorrow

Judith A. McMorrow

This article focuses on three current professionalism challenges in the U.S. legal profession: (i) the problem of neglect, poor client communication, and poor management of client funds; (ii) the need to improve the ethical infrastructures in practice settings to enhance both routine practice and ethical decision-making when lawyers confront ethical challenges; and (iii) the challenge of providing legal services to the poor and working class. For each, it turns out that improving adherence to core values requires not just training lawyers to internalize a model of professionalism, and a continuing commitment to self-regulation in some form, but also implementing improved …

The Role Of Strategic Thinking In Legal Training (With Alan M. Klinger), Jeremy Paul

Jeremy R. Paul

No abstract provided.

Taking The Bar Early: Making Law Students ‘Practice Ready’, Jason Forcier

Jason Forcier

The beginning of 2013 brings with it a number of rule changes by the Supreme Court of Arizona. Notable is the change to Rule 34, Application for Admission. The rule change is the result of an initiative from the deans of each of the three law schools: Phoenix School of Law, University of Arizona, and Arizona State University. The experimental change, set to expire at the end of 2015, allows law students to take the February bar exam during their final semester, so long as students meet certain qualifications and are within 120 days of graduation. This change effectively allows …

Only Law Schools That Tackle Costs, Graduate Client-Centered Lawyers Will Survive- A Dean's View, Jeremy Paul

Jeremy R. Paul

No abstract provided.

Making “Practice Ready” Practice Ready: Arizona’S Attempt To Streamline The Final Process For Admission To The Bar, Jason Forcier

Jason Forcier

Beginning with the first of the year, 2013 brings with it a number of rule changes from the Supreme Court of Arizona. Most notably is the change to Rule 34, Application for Admission. The rule change is the result of an initiative from each of the deans of Arizona’s three law schools: Phoenix School of Law, University of Arizona, and Arizona State University. The new change will provide many beneficial results: it will allow students to start transitioning from the theory of law to the practice of law; lead to a fundamental change in the structure of the current legal …

Panelist, Can Law Schools Prepare Students To Be Practice Ready?, R. Michael Cassidy

R. Michael Cassidy

No abstract provided.

Developing Professional Skills: Business Associations, Michelle Harner

Michelle M. Harner

Incorporating skills training into a traditional Business Associations course is challenging. This creative and original book provides ten independent exercises designed to develop student skills in legal drafting, client interviewing and counseling, negotiation, and advocacy. Each exercise is based on fundamental legal rules and doctrines so that the book can be used on its own or as a supplemental text with any doctrinal casebook. Students are required to spend a manageable one to two hours on such tasks as outlining discussion points for major meetings and negotiations, drafting advisory letters to clients, crafting a demand letter to a board of …

The Benefits Of Mindfulness For Litigators, Jan Jacobowitz

Jan L Jacobowitz

“I am calling for an all-out revolution.” These words reverberated through the federal district courthouse in Miami in the spring of 2012, but there was no one calling for security. In fact, it was eerily quiet in the conference room in which the call for revolution was sounded. How can that be? Well, the audience was a group of well-regarded litigation counsel and judges and the revolutionary leader a prominent federal district court judge. The revolution: Mindfulness in law as a vehicle for restoring civility, decreasing stress, and enhancing the fundamental fabric of the legal community.

Fidelity Diluted: Client Confidentiality Gives Way To The First Amendment & Social Media In Virginia State Bar, Ex Rel. Third District Committee V. Horace Frazier Hunter, Jan Jacobowitz, Kelly Jesson

Jan L Jacobowitz

Fidelity and confidentiality are hallmarks of the attorney-client relationship. However, as social media use permeates the legal profession, new challenges have arisen to the traditional interpretation of client confidentiality. The Virginia Supreme Court’s recent holding, which concludes that to deny attorney Horace Hunter the ability to blog about his clients’ cases without client consent, after the case concludes and based upon what is found in the public record, is to deny Hunter his First Amendment right of free speech has spurned controversy. The Hunter opinion arguably undermines the long standing legal ethics rule of confidentiality and strikes at the heart …

The American Legal Profession In Crisis: Resistance And Responses To Change, James Moliterno

James E. Moliterno

Reviewed by Herbert Kritzner in Law and Politics Book Review, 227-231.

Strategic Austerity: How Some Law School Affordability Initiatives Could Actually Improve Learning Outcomes, R. Michael Cassidy

R. Michael Cassidy

The legal profession is facing profound and perhaps irreversible changes. Whether you view these striking demographics as a “crisis” likely depends on the location of your perch. If you are a tenured professor at a T14 law school or a senior partner at an NLJ 250 firm, you may view the trends we have been discussing today as cyclical corrections. If you are an unemployed graduate looking for work or an untenured professor at a lower-tier school that is struggling to stay afloat, you may be more likely to view these trends as permanent and paradigm shifting.

While applications to …

Professional Responsibility, James Moliterno

James E. Moliterno

No abstract provided.

Symposium: Building Global Professionalism: Emerging Trends In International And Transnational Legal Education, Anil Kalhan

Anil Kalhan

It has become a matter of recurring lament and concern — and periodically, an object of satire and derision — that Americans lack basic knowledge, awareness, or interest concerning the world beyond their borders; whether in terms of history, public affairs, culture, language, or even basic geography. Politicians, corporate leaders, scholars, and other observers across a broad spectrum routinely warn of the potential dangers this global awareness deficit poses to the well-being and security of the United States. In an increasingly interdependent world — with a growing array of economic, political, social, and environmental problems that transcend national borders — …

Thinking Critically About International And Transnational Legal Education, Anil Kalhan

Anil Kalhan

It has become a matter of recurring lament and concern — and periodically, an object of satire and derision — that Americans lack basic knowledge, awareness, or interest concerning the world beyond their borders; whether in terms of history, public affairs, culture, language, or even basic geography. Politicians, corporate leaders, scholars, and other observers across a broad spectrum routinely warn of the potential dangers this global awareness deficit poses to the well-being and security of the United States. In an increasingly interdependent world — with a growing array of economic, political, social, and environmental problems that transcend national borders — …

In Quest Of The Arbitration Trifecta, Or Closed Door Litigation?: The Delaware Arbitration Program, Thomas Stipanowich

Thomas J. Stipanowich

The Delaware Arbitration Program established a procedure by which businesses can agree to have their disputes heard in an arbitration proceeding before a sitting judge of the state’s highly regarded Chancery Court. The Program arguably offers a veritable trifecta of procedural advantages for commercial parties, including expert adjudication, efficient case management and short cycle time and, above all, a proceeding cloaked in secrecy. It also may enhance the reputation of Delaware as the forum of choice for businesses. But the Program’s ambitious intermingling of public and private forums brings into play the longstanding tug-of-war between the traditional view of court …

Technology: A Motivation Behind Recent Model Rule Revisions, Louise L. Hill

Louise L Hill

No abstract provided.

Authors, Copyright And The Digital Evolution, Francina Cantatore

Francina Cantatore

Copyright law has been constantly evolving in response to economic demands, in an attempt to balance utilitarian principles with the changing times and technological advances. However, unprecedented advances in technology have challenged legislature globally and are having a disruptive effect on traditional publishing models and the copyright provisions that underpin them. It is in this uncharted terrain that authors and publishers find themselves, with the legislature adopting a reactive position, trying to deal with copyright infringement problems as they present themselves on the one hand, and accommodating public demand for access to creative works on the other. This article focuses …

Women Of Color In Law Teaching: Shared Identities, Different Experiences, Katherine Vaughns

Katherine L. Vaughns

No abstract provided.

Beyond Practical Skills: Nine Steps For Improving Legal Education Now, R. Michael Cassidy

R. Michael Cassidy

It has been five years since the Carnegie Report “Educating Lawyers” called upon law schools to adopt an integrated approach to professional education that teaches practical skills and professionalism across the curriculum. Yet so far, very few schools have responded to this clarion call for wholesale curricular reform. Considering the inertial effect of traditional law school pedagogy and the institutional impediments to change, this delay is not surprising. A fully integrated approach to teaching professional skills (such as the medical school model) would require major resource reallocations, realignment of teaching responsibilities, redesign of courses, and a change to graduation requirements. …

The Model Penal Code’S Wrong Turn: Renunciation As A Defense To Criminal Conspiracy, R. Michael Cassidy

R. Michael Cassidy

While the Model Penal Code was certainly one the most influential developments in criminal law in the past century, the American Law Institute (ALI) took a seriously wrong turn by recognizing a defense of “renunciation” to the crime of conspiracy. Under the Model Penal Code formulation, a member of a conspiracy who later disavows the agreement and thwarts its objective (for example, by notifying authorities of the planned crime in order to prevent its completion) is afforded a complete defense to conspiracy liability. This defense has enormous implications for crimes involving national security and terrorism, which are typically planned covertly …

What Is A Lawyer? A Reconstruction Of The Lawyer As An Officer Of The Court, Deborah Hussey Freeland

Deborah M. Hussey Freeland

This paper engages with the central question in legal ethics concerning the lawyer's role, analyzing this fundamental question in terms of professional identity. Literature in this debate frames the lawyer either as a professional who exists entirely to serve her client (the "standard conception"), or as a professional whose primary duties are to the legal system. I reposit and examine the lawyer's professional identity as an officer of the court--an identity marginalized by those who favor the standard conception--noting that the phrase was coined to draw attention to a supplanting threat to legal professionalism. Providing a uniquely detailed examination of …

Cases And Materials On The Law Governing Lawyers, James Moliterno

James E. Moliterno

No abstract provided.

More Than One Lane Wide: Against Hierarchies Of Helping In Progressive Legal Advocacy, Rebecca Sharpless

Rebecca Sharpless

Progressive legal scholars and practitioners have created a hierarchy within social justice lawyering. Direct service attorneys — nonprofit attorneys who focus on helping individuals in civil cases — sit at the bottom. In the 1960s, progressive theorists advanced a negative portrayal of direct service attorneys as a class. This discourse has continued through different phases in the development of progressive legal theory. Direct service work is done primarily by women in the service of women, has the aesthetic of traditional women’s work, and can be understood as embodying the thesis that women have a greater existential and psychological connection to …

To My Sisters-In-Law (Teaching)—A Critical Race Feminist Perspective, Hope Lewis

Hope Lewis

No abstract provided.

The Moral Responsibility Of The Corporate Lawyer, Judith Mcmorrow

Judith A. McMorrow

No abstract provided.

The Litigation Department Lawyer, James Moliterno

James E. Moliterno

No abstract provided.

Does Legalzoom Have First Amendment Rights: Some Thoughts About Freedom Of Speech And The Unauthorized Practice Of Law, Catherine Lanctot

Catherine J. Lanctot

No abstract provided.